Design and Design Thinking is all the rage today. Everyone is talking about it. But that’s just talk or in essence the product of a what is now becoming a major awareness campaign, and that’s real good, plain and simple. Now take a moment and think about the majority’s impression of Design capabilities, methods and the discipline in itself. There’s this aura of solitude, the designers, locked away in a workshop or lab, thinking to themselves, safeguarding ideas and secrets selfishly into patents, every stroke of genius being of great value that must be protected and redeemed prior to any notion of validation by the markets. While this notion may hold some truth, how we’re seeing the discipline evolve paints a very different picture.

My impression of what we’re experiencing is the progression and acceptance of an open design movement. Aggressive patenting and the lack of collaborative platforms in the past as compared to platforms offered by technology today is shaping a very different future for the discipline, where solitary design may actually be frowned upon. In this day and age if an idea, concept or design component stands on its own what value does it really hold in an era where the markets desire open source, integration and unity? Ask yourself that question.

Leaders in the arena are now touting open design as the new paradigm. The shift has already happened and where we need to consider focusing our attention if the discipline is to progress and meet market demands is ensuring our education system, from a very early onset, possibly at the elementary level, plants seeds to encourage integrated and open design thinking.

Leading in this arena are organizations such as SAP and the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) Academy for Design Thinking or d.school, offering an accessible and open education platform.

My personal journey of late has afforded me the opportunity to realize that Design Thinking, whether we realize it or not is a fundamental function and capability of the human psyche. Just close your eyes and think about an idea, any idea. Now open your eyes and…..guess what silly, you’re designing.

With the advent technological advancements facilitating connectedness, integration and unified thought such as cloud and IoT, harnessing and harvesting design into hives of design components is becoming easier and easier. The former lab or workshop of the solitary designer has become a universal playground of thoughts, ideas and design components. Designers are no longer constrained to their environment, components have the potential to be shared universally in an instant. The capability is evolving as to encourage open ended design components, rapid and iterative design is imminent.

Over the next year, I’m very excited to exploring ways to advance the discipline, which I’m becoming extremely fond of. I’m finding it extremely fun designing and shaping what I can currently coin as a framework for a conceptual sub-discipline, that of being a Design Jockey. Planning to step into the Hasso PIattner Institute of Design Thinking (d.school) is my next step.

Listen to the media these days. Brexit is all the talk. What happened Grexit? False perception? Maybe. And maybe not, you can argue either way these days all you want, but for the next couple of years, Britain has taken the spotlight. And what that means for Greece, in my opinion, is nothing but healthy. Time for some good news.

Turn off the news, stop listening to all the noise and look around anywhere in Greece. Greeks are no longer bound to the keyboard of their cellular phones, today, their eyes are clearly set above the horizon.

Almost four years ago, I remember clearly planting seeds with my fellow patriots on the importance of spreading hope, the parting words I used in Greek were Καλη Συνεχεια (or) Good Continuance. Today, end a conversation with any Greek and there’s a 50% chance you’ll hear these words. My perception based on my observations of late are that Greece has taken a turn for not only what is better, and today, I’m left with the sure feeling that my patriots are standing on the shoulders of being great.

The ancient art of collaborating, sharing, arguing and discussing for the greater good of the community is all you hear. Greeks are no longer bound to how many Euros are in their pocket, instead, Euros are being replaced by the higher level currency of opportunity. Listen closely and inside of one day you’ll hear someone actively sharing ideas about opportunities between each other.

Young adults are actively learning about the value of practical experience, be it via internship, working multiple jobs, even waiting tables which used to be frowned upon, is now respected. I’m seeing highly educated and capable individuals tout the value of experience, collaboration and hard work, maintain a steadfast rule of work life balance, and promoting the principles of continuously thinking about continuance and progression. Comfort is no longer an option. Progression, continuance, collaboration, opportunity and sharing is all you hear about and has now become the the talk of the town.

A mentor of mine shared a thought a year ago, one summer night on a balcony over a whiskey. It was along the lines of Greece is great because of its principle belief in hope, continuity, community and family. I have nothing more to say than that thought has been validated and proven to me consistently over the past several weeks.

To the Greek parliament. Take your head out of your ass, stop looking in a mirror and listen to your people. They’re getting it right.

Way to go Greece. You’re doing GREAT! Thank You for reminding us the importance of hope and unity. Keep going.

With big data introducing the logistics and framework to standardize and normalize data models, predictive analytics in real time may be a real target state concept for the evolution of delivery management. True Flowstate delivery, real time simulations, real time framework able data.
Imagine knowing what your control limits are at all times. Where would you stretch? What’s normal? Either you go for it, or you don’t.

Working through this article, that’s what’s running through my mind. What’s running through yours?

In a follow up to this post here on governance, there’s a great piece from Mark Hufty that does a fine job of shaping a conceptual framework for “Governance”.

You can find the ~20 page paper here, and check out the abstract below to get a sense of relevancy to your universe before investing your time. It’s a great read if you want to overcome the blurry lines of distinguishing between governance/government and political systems. It also provides a practical process to create and operationalise a governance framework for any entity.

Abstract:

Societies develop ways of making decisions regarding collective problems, thereby creating norms, rules, and institutions; this is what governance is about. In policy research, governance has become an important focus of attention; but debates show a lack of clarity at the conceptual level and a confusion between the use of the concept for prescriptive and analytical purposes. The present article is based on the hypothesis that using a clarified, non-normative governance perspective in policy research can contribute to an improved understanding of political processes, including formal and unrecognised ones, those embedded in larger and smaller social systems, as well as both vertical and horizontal political arrangements. The paper is the result of a collaborative engagement with the concept of governance within several networks, leading to the development of the Governance Analytical Framework (GAF). The GAF is a practical methodology for investigating governance processes, based on five analytical tools: problems, actors, social norms, processes, and nodal points. Besides describing the conceptual sources and analytical purpose of these five tools, the paper presents examples of how the GAF can be operationalised.

In the Insta-age of agility, OpenUP is where you want to be if you’re in the process business.

What is OpenUP?

OpenUP is a lean Unified Process that applies iterative and incremental approaches within a structured lifecycle. OpenUP embraces a pragmatic, agile philosophy that focuses on the collaborative nature of software development. It is a tools-agnostic, low-ceremony process that can be extended to address a broad variety of project types.

With the Eclipse framework and fine tutorial material you can have a tailored process up and running, PUBLISHED ON-LINE, very quickly or less that is bus-tech optimized.

That’s adoptable.

Need more tech, just reach into Rational Unified Process and process model yourself to heaven; (or hell). And, it’s open source. With this framework, you plug and play into a cosmos of integration and process friendly platforms.

I’ve had the distinct pleasure of implementing an Enterprise Governance Framework. It was great and it worked, and that’s exactly why my perception of Governance has evolved. Big brother can work quite effectively. By that I mean a quick witted project manager can learn how to sit on brother’s shoulders, and that is the Achilles heal of a Governance framework in this day age. Governance today is visible, manipulatable, and overarching.

Agree that one size does not fit all in the real world and you’ll be hard pressed to figure out how to govern, and again that’s because most organizations today try to develop an overarching Governance framework while Corp-cultural paradigms are in the process of being redefined for agility. You’ll figure out how to govern when you settle on what to govern, in doing so you can be one step closer to a universal governance model.

Consider governance of a process. I call the figure below the triangle of love (long story…).

In process design, my humble opinion is Governance and Controls should come last, so you know what you’re governing and controlling. “Governing” vs. Governance is a key consideration. “GOVERNING” means active Governance with a focus on organizational Design and Strategy to empower a culture geared towards people as the primary drivers, thus providing organizational leadership with the necessary support to realize desired outcomes by focusing on activities. By aligning Controls and Gating (Governing) to Activities as the primary driver, as a process is tailored, Governance becomes dynamic and is for lack of a better term, carried, thus supportive and universal in nature. Note how controls, gating and human factors are all underlying, or for lack of a better term, underground.

Authentic is a word that is being thrown out there, left right and centre. What does it mean? Be Authentic. Does it mean, look in a mirror and be yourself? Does it mean accept your environment as a major influencer and succumb to your existence within it? Does it mean, be joyful, happy, motivated…blah blah blah…what?
Run a search for the definition of authentic, this is what Google renders:

Probability says you have a better chance of finding authenticity in the context of music, and you probably don’t even know it. Thus it is especially important when thinking about authenticity that we consider context so that we may reconcile against that which is “of undisputed origin, genuine”.

The moment you step into the education system these days, any sense or possibility of authenticity, scratch it out. Remember, the education system has evolved into a zero tolerance environment; the sandbox no longer exists. At least in North America this is true, unfortunately for the right reasons (violence, safety, etc.).

Everybody is in it for themselves and that exactly means what it means, zero tolerance for anything other than your perception of what is correct. It seems like the only way for correct to be perceived these days is a cultural stale mate, of which the economic cost is that of authenticity, because if everything is the same, what else do I need?

This is a first in a series that chronicles what I’m re-learning about music. Over the past two years I’ve had the pleasure of stepping into a musical journey. I’m not going to bore you with the details of my journey of late, I’d rather encourage anyone to discover their own and make it happen, whatever it takes. Here goes nothing…

Flip over to SoundCloud and scroll your eyes up and down for a minute, chances are you’ll find a list of music including hour long entries of mixes, one after the other. Now what is the difference between an album and a mix? Listen to an album, and you are listening to one artist’s (or band’s) story, typically and thematically, one dimensional. Now listen to an hour of music pulled together by a DJ and you have:

A multi-dimensional compound (mix) of stories (tracks) shaped into a journey, adjoining various artists points of view, themes and genres. The conductor is being redefined and the orchestra is eternal.

With little effort into expanding the breadth of your sight while looking around you in a public place, it’s almost a promise you’ll have a tough time finding a line of sight that does not include a pair of earphones or listening device. People are investing a significant amount of time developing auditory senses, this is already happening.

Not in a meeting? You’re listening to music. Driving? You’re listening to music. On a midnight oil work binge? You’re listening to music. Or you have a TV in the background chuckling at Archer jokes on Netflix. People are always listening and the truth is that while silence and peace are incredibly powerful meditative tools, its inherent that the human body will feel awkward when in silence. Think of it this way, last time I checked, I hear in my sleep, dreams don’t come with captions. So it’s perfectly natural to feel awkward when there’s quiet, an entire sense is essentially asleep.

Now what happens when listening is your job, that’s a question I implore you to ask a DJ outright, it’s a great conversation starter, especially for anyone that spends a lot of time listening in order to perform their job function(s).

Take a breath and think about this age of digital music, digital wallets and listening platforms out there, including some really strong architecture and algorithms that empower the listener to essentially be their own DJ. One can readily assume that the DJ as defined today is dead. My opinion, far from it. I believe the reality is that we’re on the cusp of a musical revelation and we’ll need a new type of Storyteller and Communicator focused on sharing “cultural news”.

I want to take an informal stab at correlating key DJ skills and capabilities (this is just a TINY sample). A DJ listens to and compounds existing material, knowing exactly what to listen for, examples include but are not limited to:

Pace and R-h-y-t-h-m (write that down, I’m talking about a BEAT, you know like your HEART BEAT)

The ignition of organized actions and stimulus => Cues

Reuse => Loops and Samples

Harmonization to bring or come into agreement => Musical Keys

Change/transition from one track (of thought or theme) to the next => Mixing

Knowledge of varying platforms, hardware, software and how it’s all => Integrated

Most importantly though is a DJs ability to gauge and know the audience, anything > than oneself.

If you have someone that you relate to or come across someone in your cosmos that has exposure to this industry, find some time to talk with them. Chances are a DJ can do much more than you think, including rationalizing, integrating and orchestrating different themes and points of view into a unified solution. Just taking a look at the examples listed above screams opportunities, one just needs to see through any stigmas and stereotypes to realize a DJ is fundamentally skilled at being an incredible leader, orchestrator and communicator, in any setting.

While you learn, my only advice for now is that you share knowledge, both what you have in your back pocket and what you’re learning in the moment, that, personally is a fundamental principle of mixing music and the moral of this article.

Discussing medical experiences is generally not appealing, which to some extent makes sharing such information taboo, basically because the details are most likely personal. When it comes to finding consensus with these types of discussions, we’re dreaming, and this is largely due to our individual organics, no one is the same. When you accept that you own and are accountable for your own organics, the relationship with the medical system evolves.

There is a stigma or stereotype that a family doctor or general practitioner navigates the medical waters for you. Nothing is further from the truth. The moment you start describing symptoms, you’re at the helm of the ship and the direction is based on what you say. Here are a few tips that have made my medical journey and communicating about it much more comfortable when dealing with the system and doctors in particular. I hope they may help you today and or in the future.

Take “note” of everything, especially symptoms

Symptoms – described in detail and over periods/cycles of time, know exactly what is a core symptom vs peripheral

Work with your GP to shape your therapeutic journey, specialists and hospitals address and approach most issues acutely. Symptoms, know them, write them down (especially over a period of time if possible). Recognize and describe both peripheral + core symptoms, the doctor observes and is dependent on you to navigate the medical system and its waters safely. Don’t shy away from asking stupid questions, chances you’re describing something when you do. Ultimately you are accountable for your own health and your interaction (responsibility) with the medical system. Treat your health like you treat your job. Watch what happens.